Golden era of 1950s/60s was anomaly, not norm

Food was cheap, land was cheap, houses were cheap, college was cheap, oil was cheap

Published: 03/28/2014 at 11:53 PM

(Zero Hedge) If there is one thing that unites trade unionists, Keynesian Cargo Cultists, free-market fans and believers in American exceptionalism, it’s a misty-eyed nostalgia for the Golden Era of the 1950s and 60s, when one wage-earner earned enough to buy all the goodies of a middle-class lifestyle because everything was cheap. Food was cheap, land was cheap, houses were cheap, college was cheap and most importantly, oil was cheap.

The entire political spectrum looks back at this Golden Age with longing because it was an era of “the rising tide raises all ships:” essentially full employment, a strong U.S. dollar and overseas demand for U.S. goods combined to raise wages while keeping inflation low.

The nostalgic punditry quite naturally think of this full-employment golden age of their youth as the default setting, i.e. the economy of the 1950s/60s was “normal.” But it wasn’t normal–it was a one-off anomaly, never to be repeated. Consider the backdrop of this Golden Era: